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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bear · spring · row · mine · craft · hand · bat · fan

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  13. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. craft — a skill
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. spring — the season
  5. spring — of water
  6. hand — help
  7. row — a line
  8. spring — a coil
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. craft — boats
  14. bat — the animal
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. bear — to put up with
  17. bear — the animal
  18. row — to paddle
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. bear — the animal
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. hand — in cards
  24. mine — for digging

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com